


Broken ovens, bad dates and other beautiful things

by PetalsToFish, WonderWitchWeasley



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, F/M, Math is hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 01:11:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18377888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetalsToFish/pseuds/PetalsToFish, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderWitchWeasley/pseuds/WonderWitchWeasley
Summary: The only things that can save Lily from linear algebra are her famous cookies and her hot next door neighbour.





	Broken ovens, bad dates and other beautiful things

The fact that she was only on chapter one of her linear algebra book, yet somehow 50 pages in, was inducing a slight panic. She had three more chapters to study before her exam in the morning, and if they were all fifty pages long, Lily Evans was about to throw her maths book out the damn window and take a failing grade. She couldn’t even complain that she didn’t know what use the mind numbing subject was going to be in practical application of her field. 

Lily’s first assignment had been to submit a paper on the real life applications of linear algebra and how life as humans knew it today would be impossible without studying it. As far as Lily was concerned, she was ready to go live in the stone ages and never look back because currently, her understanding of the subject was hopeless. If Lily had to go about 20 pages back to check what a stupid greek letter represented one more time _ , _ she was going to burst into tears... _ again _ .

At this point, if someone came up to her and said that all the bridges built in London are kept standing by a wand-waving wizarding community that exists as a secret society, or that facial recognition software uses a tiny elf who sits inside your device to see who comes in front of the camera she would accept their theory without question, declare the subject to be a farce, thank them for putting her out of her misery, and go get some much needed sleep.

And yet here she was, fifty pages into linear algebra with no sense of how the problems worked and that made her want to rip her hair out in frustration. 

Lily picked up her phone to google some good resources to study but then she remembered that google used linear algebra to sort it’s searches and felt an overwhelming sense of frustration towards everything in life. It felt like the universe was punishing her for thinking herself to be of above average intellect. She felt like chucking her phone out, along with her book, but then Lily remembered that she couldn't afford to buy either of them again seeing as she was a poor university student running on zero sleep and anxiety. 

Realizing that she was not focusing on her studying in any productive way, Lily slammed her book shut. She stared out across her tiny flat to the kitchen where she kept all her baking supplies. If there was anything that helped Lily calm down, it was baking cookies. Lily stood up promptly from her sofa and gave in to the itching need to mix ingredients together into a tasty treat. She had about twenty five different recipes memorized and she didn’t even pause to think as she started gathering bowls from underneath her cabinets. Once she had bowls lined up she started gathering eggs, flour, sugar and all the other things she needed to make her favorite double chocolate chip cookies. 

All too soon she’d gotten lost in a trance of mixing up cups of flour and softened butter together. She remembered to add her secret ingredients (cinnamon and a dash of coconut) as she danced around the kitchen in her socks, licking her mixing spoon. She’d turned on her radio and it blasted happy tunes that pulled her out from her exam funk. She’d finished prepping the last bowl of double chocolate dough when she realized her fatal mistake.

Lily reached out to her oven to press the bake option, when her brain registered that her oven had been broken since Friday night. The maintenance blokes hadn’t stopped by yet to figure out why the old oven had suddenly stopped producing heat of any sort, leaving Lily to fend for herself all weekend. She’d been living off granola bars and sugary sweets for the last two days, unable to cook anything inside the oven or on the stove. It gave her an unholy type of glee, because she knew her sister would be absolutely horrified at the thought of living without a stove. Her dear sweet sister, who drank disgusting health milkshakes every morning and tried new diets every month, who looked down on Lily because Lily’s go-to stress management was baking cookies and eating the lot of them. Lily loved every minute of her sugary, unhealthy diet this weekend because the sweet lingering taste of shortbread and jam was almost as satisfying as imagining the disgusted look on her sister’s face. 

Still, she couldn’t believe that she’d forgotten all about her faulty oven. She had spent the last forty eight hours complaining to the landlords over the phone that her water wouldn’t boil on the stove for tea. It must have been the stress of the exams getting to her, making her forget even the most annoying of issues. 

Now, Lily had  _ four _ different bowls of cookie dough that she couldn’t bake. Maybe she really did need to stop thinking of herself as being of above average intelligence because she could never remember feeling so dumb. Her life had become a Comedy of Errors, except there was nothing to laugh at but her idiocy. Annoyed tears pricked her eyes and she leaned against the closest counter, pressing a hand to her cheek as she thought to herself. 

“What now?” Lily asked herself miserably, as if saying it aloud in an empty room would result in someone magically appearing to answer the question and tell her how to solve the mess she’d gotten herself into.

And that’s when she heard laughter. At first she was a bit confused. She knew she was stressed but she didn’t think that it was bad enough to start imagining people laughing at her helpless condition. If she was going to begin hearing voices, she hoped that they would at least be useful. It took a while before Lily realized the sound was coming through the thin apartment walls from her neighbour. His voice was deep but she could hear him clearly talking on the phone through the walls complaining about a bad date. Lily had only just moved into the complex two weeks ago and didn’t know her neighbor personally but she had four batches of cookie dough that would go to waste if she didn’t use  _ someone’s _ oven.

Lily Evans had never believed in letting herself wallow in misery, hence the baking. She’d gotten herself out of every little mess by herself and she wasn’t about to let something as silly as a broken oven and a impending linear algebra test bring her down. 

There was one option that she could choose, one that was a little bold but she tried not to dwell on the possible outcomes. Before Lily could overthink her decision, she picked up her bowl of cookie dough and gathered all her cookie sheets. Steadfastly, she forced her feet to carry her out her front door and into the hallway. 

_ Everyone loved cookies right?  _

Well, except her sister, but Lily was fairly sure that Petunia had been swapped out by an alien species as a child. There was no way that an actual human could be so boring, or have a voice that shrill. Petunia swore off cookies when they were ten ( _ ‘it has too many calories!’ _ ) and Lily hasn’t trusted her sister since. 

Keeping her chin held high, pride intact, Lily walked over and knocked on her neighbours door. She heard her neighbour stop talking into his phone and walk towards the door. She immediately started thinking of what she should say when he opened the door. ‘I need to use your oven’ made Lily sound like a mad scientist who needed to conduct an experiment, but ‘May I come in and bake cookies please’ reminded her of the old pedantic English teacher she was subjected to in grade school . Neither were options that she prefered. First impressions were important and her opening line needed to be perfect to convince her neighbor to let her use his oven. 

When he opened the door, she realized that it was completely useless. Nothing could have prepared her for this. Her new neighbour was standing in front of her with a phone in one hand, staring at her quizzically. He was not what she expected, not that she’d known exactly what to expect. The first thing she noticed was his hair. Thick, black, little ringlets fell into his sharp brow. He wore turtle-shell specs that seemed right out of a magazine. In fact, his whole ensemble was like right out of a Paris runway fashion. Even his shoes were shiny and he had his free hand in his hair, apparently aggravated. 

His hazel eyes traced up Lily’s form, noting her appearance. His eyes scanned everything from the old pair of school joggers to her flour dusted concert t-shirt. Lily felt red sneak up her cheeks. He was checking her out. She suddenly realized what she must look like to him. 

The best she could say for herself was that she had showered in the morning and put on deodorant. She could only imagine that her recent descent into madness in the kitchen had not done her any favours in the looks department. In fact, she was fairly certain that she had run her flour covered hand through her auburn hair at one point. 

Great. 

Now Lily was standing in front of her new, ridiculously fit, neighbour with an armful of baking supplies while looking like a living candy cane. 

The day just kept getting better and better.

He lifted his phone back to his ear and said slowly, “Sirius, I’ll call you back, yeah no, there’s a bird at my door.”

He ended his call, putting the mobile in his pocket. The hand in his hair lowered to his side to help him lean up against his doorframe. Lily was presently aware that he was waiting for her to speak but she was lost for words besides the ‘ _ oh no, he’s hot’ _ ringing through her brain over and over like a broken record. 

“Can I help you?” He asked politely, one of his nice eyebrows curving up in amusement.

Lily shook her head and managed a weak hello. This only made his smile widen and that only made her knees go weaker. His gaze dropped to the baking supplies in her arms.

“I thought I heard you banging around the cabinets.” He said conversationally, “I wondered if you were having a late dinner.”

Lily tried to get her heartbeat back to normal, “Right sorry, erm, I heard you talking on the phone and I wanted to ask if I could borrow you?”

His eyes widened a bit, “Borrow me?” 

She realized she’d done a bang up job explaining herself already. The bloke was probably halfway to closing the door on her face and she’d have to move on to the next neighbor. Old Mathilda down the hall would kill her if she knocked on the door so close to midnight and he was awake and as he was her age she didn't think he’d mind staying up a little while longer. Lily really needed to get her dough in the oven sooner rather than later. She had to get this man to let her use his oven, even for just one batch. 

“My oven is broken and I was wondering if I might borrow yours?” She moved the bowls in her arms to show him her dough, “The dough should only set for thirty minutes and it’s already been forty.”

The bloke looked at her and then down at his watch, “It’s almost midnight.” He stated obviously, “Why the hell are you even up?”

Lily sighed deeply as she admitted, “Linear algebra test in the morning.”

He perked up, “You at the Uni downtown?”

“Final year.” Lily nodded, “My name is Lily Evans.”

“I’m James Potter, I’m in the engineering program.”

“Nice to meet you.” Lily said kindly, shuffling the supplies in her arms so she could shake his outstretched hand.

He laughed when her bowls shook and he instantly reached out to help her by taking two of the bowls piled high in her arms. Her neighbor nodded and pushed back so that his door opened all the way and he motioned for her to come in. Shyly, Lily made her way into his flat. 

For a bachelor, he kept his flat tidy and brightly lit by lots of small lamps. Lily’s flat was dirtier, by far, but she also had a cat who loved to leave out toys and Lily’s dirty laundry for unsuspecting guests. It appeared James was spotless, even his sitting room was void of pillows and blankets. Instead of analyzing more of his apartment, Lily made her way across the hardwood floor into the kitchen where he had only one unopened bottle of red wine sitting out. James set his stack of Lily’s bowls on the counter and then motioned to the wine.

“Fancy a glass?”

“That would be amazing!” Lily said excitedly as she set his oven for the right temperature, “I cannot thank you enough, I’m so stressed. I just had to bake it out. I’ll be out of your hair soon, I promise.” 

James chuckled as he opened his wine carefully, “My pleasure, I wasn’t doing anything.”

Lily eyed him, “You were on the phone.”

James flushed a bit around the neck as he poured two glasses of red wine, “Yeah,” he said, “bad blind date tonight. I was yelling at the bloke who set it up. I think that this was his revenge for that one time I played a prank on him.”

Lily looked up from where she was rolling dough into the cookie sheet, “Blind date?”

Of course she already knew that he had gone on a date, as the walls of the apartment weren’t that thick and he was complaining rather loudly. Still, she kept that piece of information to herself. Lily didn’t want him to think of her as more of a weirdo than he already did thanks to her showing up at his door at midnight, begging to use his oven. Not that she was listening. Listening through walls was just plain creepy, and Lily didn’t want him to think she did it on purpose. It wasn’t her fault she had good hearing or that the walls were thin. 

James placed one of the wine glasses beside her, his smile shy, but charming. Lily watched as he settled himself into a stool at the edge of the kitchen island. 

“Yeah, ever heard of Anne Dickinson?” He asked.

Lily shook her head, “Never.”

“Good.” James took a swing of his drink, “Do yourself a favor and keep it that way.”

“That bad, huh?” Lily preferred conversation to silence and hoped if she kept him talking it wouldn’t get awkward. 

James didn’t seem to mind, “She was a troll, inside and out. I mean sure, she was pretty but she was so mean to the waitstaff in the restaurant and she ordered all this food before she sent it back because she didn’t like any of it! She ordered good food too, steak and the like. Then, when I asked her where she wanted to go for dessert she—“

James must’ve realized that he was rambling because he stopped suddenly and muttered an apology. 

“Don’t apologize to me.” Lily assured him as she leaned down to play her first tray into the oven, “It sounds like a nightmare of a date.” 

James sighed, his hand was back in his hair as he stared at her over his wine glass, “Yeah, it was.” 

Something in his demeanor changed when Lily met his stare with a warm smile. 

She got a little nervous under his persistent gaze and she dropped her eyes to her triple chocolate cookie dough. She self consciously started whipping the mix again even though she’d already prepped it for baking. A bit of the thick chocolate paste got stuck to the inside of her palm and she licked it off, only to see James was still watching her. Lily’s hand dropped and she flushed, apologetic.

James waved his hand at her before asking kindly, “So maths test, huh?”

Grateful for a new subject, Lily nodded, “I’m in the school of biology but they’re making me take linear algebra for the medical boards.”

James winced, “That’s a rough field to be in.”

Lily blew her fringe from her eyes as she bent over to check her cookies in the oven, “I want to go into public health but these last few classes are kicking my arse.”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” James said conversationally as she grabbed a nearby oven mitt, “You seem clever.”

Lily arched her brow at him before she removed the cookies, “I only  _ seem _ clever?”

James smirked, “Well, we have only just met,” and then added after a beat, “and you did mix up four different cookie recipes when you knew your oven was broken.”

Lily froze, realizing what his words implied, “How do you know, that I knew, that my oven was broken?”

He seemed to be embarrassed now. His hand went to the back of his head, ruffling his hair, as he pointed over to the wall that their apartments shared and said, “Well, the walls aren’t exactly soundproof. I heard the landlord come in to check it over on Friday. Sorry if that was weird.”

Lily didn’t know if now would be a good time to admit she’d heard him complaining about his date through the walls. 

Instead she settled for a short, “Not weird at all.”

“I’m not complaining though,” he hastily added with a small smile in her direction, “You can use my oven anytime.”

“Really?”

“As long as you promise that you’ll share everything you bake.”

Lily couldn’t help but smile too as she leaned down to pull the cookies from the oven carefully. She set the hot tray between James and the kitchen sink. James eyed them eagerly.

“You can try one.” She said and he reached out, “but they’ll be hot!”

James didn’t care, he carefully slid one of the chocolate chip cookies off the tray and lifted it to his mouth, blowing on it before he popped the whole thing in his mouth. Lily stood on her tiptoes waiting for his verdict. James chewed slowly, like a judge on a cooking show. It looked like he was enjoying her attention. She was keen to hear what he thought of her cookies. Even though they’d just met, she already valued his opinion. Finally, he swallowed his cookie. 

“Well?” Lily asked him, hoping for praise.

James leaned forward seriously, swiping another cookie, “I do believe this is the start of a very lucrative friendship, Ms. Evans.”

Lily beamed and happily started prepping a fresh tray for her next cookies. James watched her all the while, munching on one cookie after another. Lily could hear her radio still going through the opposite wall and she made a mental note to remember that James could hear pretty much everything through his wall if she wasn't quiet enough. She’d have to set her radio volume lower so he wouldn’t get annoyed by Taylor Swift blaring at one in the morning when she was stress baking.

“This isn’t how I expected tonight to go.” He said suddenly when she put the new pan in the oven.

“Me either.” Lily joked, thinking of her stupid maths book next door. 

He must have sensed her mood as he said, “Hey, maybe you could bring your book over? I’ll see if I can help you with your math exam. I am an engineer after all. That is of course, only if you want me to.”

Was he kidding? First, he let her use his oven and now he was offering to help her with math? If Lily wasn’t careful, she was going to fall in love with him. 

“Oh my god, absolutely! You would be saving my life. But I can’t ask you to waste your night teaching me maths.”

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t mean it, and it seems that you’re going to be here for a while anyway,” he gestured to the two remaining batches of cookies. His expression was completely sincere. “Why don’t you go grab your books before this batch has to be removed. Till then, I’ll make us both a nice cup of tea.”

“Are you sure?” Lily asked.

James was already getting up to fill the kettle and she felt incredibly guilty. She had already barged into his house to use his oven, now he was making her tea and helping her study. It was too much. 

“You don’t need to-” 

“Like I said, I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t mean it, and we can’t possibly study while drinking wine.” James said, practically shooing her from the apartment, “Now, go on and get your books.” 

Lily shot him a baffled look but did as he instructed and walked over to her flat from his. She was in a bit of a daze from how the night was turning out, mostly due to how nice James was being to her. Her flat lights were still on as she walked over to her sofa to grab her books amongst the many pillows and blankets she had strewn all over her sitting room. She steadfastly ignored how messy her apartment looked in comparison to his as she shut off the lights and hurried back out into the hallway. 

When she pushed open the door to his flat she found that he’d settled on his own sofa, a plate of cookies set on the coffee table. Next to the plate of cookies were two piping cups of tea. James had also changed into a pair of joggers similar to Lily’s. It was quite a pity, she had rather liked his previous outfit. His hair was even messier than before as he patted the seat next to him. Lily slowed her pace as she made her way over to this sofa, dropping her book onto the table in front of him. James laughed at her forlorn expression. 

“You hate maths that much, eh?” he said, reaching out to pull her book into her lap, “What chapters?”

“One through five.” Lily said, pulling the mug of tea into her hands and taking a hearty sip before adding, “Professor Linden hates us.”

“Linden is your Professor?” James seemed tickled pink, “She’s my advisor!”

“Well your advisor wants all us to fail.” Lily stated, placing her cup down and pointing at the book in his lap, “the first chapter is fifty pages alone!”

“It’s just linear algebra.” 

“Says the engineering major.” Lily deadpanned. 

James shot her the haughtiest grin, “I get math, sure, but I bet you’d kick my arse in Chemistry.”

“Biology.”

“It’s the same thing.”

Lily shoved her shoulder against his, “It’s literally not.”

James ignored her as he flipped open the book. The oven rang, forcing Lily to get up and go check on her cookies. Once she was done pulling them out and putting a new batch in, James called from over on the sofa excitedly.

“Have you done any of the problems in the back of the chapters yet?”

“No,” Lily admitted, “Just the homework and the problems in class.”

“Come here,” he told her, “I’m going to talk you through these, it’s actually pretty simple. These books just like to word things weird.”

Lily set the timer for her new batch of cookies before skipping over to James on the sofa and landing softly next to him. He grinned at her as he shoved half the book onto her lap and pointed at a problem with diagonalization and eigenvectors. One thing Lily learned about her new friend was that he liked to talk with his hands. As he went through her study notes and book, slowly, he used his hands to tell his story. He was also unbelievably entertaining, making her laugh as he described the problems in simple ways. 

A part of her was rather grateful that that date he’d been on didn’t go well. 

James and Lily worked through all five chapters together, well into the night. The last batch of cookies were sitting on his counter at four in the morning. Lily had fallen deeper into his sofa, her legs curled up against his as she worked out problems in her notebook. James had his arm draped across the back of the sofa, almost touching her shoulders, as he helped her get through all the problems. Finally, when the last chapter was done, Lily realized what time it was.

“James, I’m so sorry!” she practically jumped out of his sofa, “I had no idea it was so--four thirty! You must be exhausted!”

James laughed up at her, definite dark circles highlighting his eyes, “It’s fine, I don’t have my first class until two in the afternoon.”

Lily pressed her hand to her forehead, “you should’ve said something! Why didn’t you?”

James kicked his legs up on his coffee table where leftover tea sat forgotten, “because I liked tutoring you.”

“I’m sure you’d much prefer sleeping to helping me pass maths.” Lily said.

“On the contrary,” James said, “I’m hoping if you pass maths you’ll come back over and let me take you out to dinner in celebration.”

Taken aback, Lily tucked her hair behind her ear, “Dinner?”

James nodded eagerly, “What do you say?” he asked, “I’ll pick you up later tonight?”

“You’re that sure I’m going to pass maths today?” Damn, she really hoped he was right. This was the first time she was giving an exam when she felt so woefully unprepared. She vowed to start studying earlier the next time. Maybe ask a certain ridiculously fit engineering major to help her again?

James winked, “I did teach you everything I know.”

Lily couldn’t help but laugh at his ego. She shook her head and started to try and clean up her tea and cookies but James stopped her with a hand on her wrist. Lily looked at him, finding that he was staring at her with the oddest look. 

“Leave the cookies.” he demanded.

Lily laughed again, “Alright, alright.”

James relaxed and leaned up against his sofa again, one eye open and watching her collect her books and notes. When she was done, she started walking to the door alone but James jumped up and strutted alongside of her to beat her to his door. He opened the door but stood in the way of Lily so that she couldn’t exit. Lily stood in front of him, wondering what on earth he was doing.

“Maybe after our date tonight,” he suggested slyly, “You could teach me how to make your double chocolate fudge cookies?”

The fact that she’d started the night ready to chuck maths out the window and take a failing grade was humorous. Especially since maths had led to her baking, which led to Lily weaseling her way into James Potter’s life. He was smiling down at her in the doorway, awaiting her answer with smouldering hazel eyes and she felt anything but anxious as she nodded.

“I think we can make some time for a baking lesson.”

James deemed that an appropriate answer and stepped out of the way of the door, swinging his arm out for her. The sweetest part was that, as she made her way past him into the hallway, he leaned down to peck her cheek. She turned and caught the glimmer in his smile.

“See you tonight,” he said as she backed away into the hallway with a wonderstruck smile, “any requests for dinner?”

“Surprise me.”

“Fresh baked cookies it is.” 

Before she could step into her apartment he asked, “Hey, what time is your exam tomorrow?”

“Eleven. Just late enough for me to get in some actual sleep before I go to give the test. Why?”

“No reason.” he quickly said. James offered Lily a goofy smile and her heart warmed as she entered her flat to get ready for her class.

As she was walking towards her bed she wondered if she could get up early enough to squeeze in another revision before she had to go face her worst nightmare

The next morning , (or,  _ that _ morning, since it was already well past midnight by the time she had come back to her apartment) just as Lily was getting ready to head out she heard a knock on the door. She cursed whoever had decided to show up just as she was leaving. She really hoped it wasn’t the maintenance blokes, come to finally repair her oven. If she turned them away now, there was no telling when they would come back. 

However, when she opened the door there was no one there. She was about to chalk it up to someone playing a prank on her when she noticed a little plastic box sitting right on her doormat.

She opened it to find one of the cookies she had baked yesterday along with a note which said, ‘Best of luck Evans! I know you’ll do great. I can’t wait to take you out after you’re done acing your exam!’ There was a little, badly drawn heart in the place of a signature. She couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face, or the sappy, warm feeling in her chest at the thought of James getting up early to leave her a good luck present. Maybe he was right and she would do well on her exam.

Of course, he was absolutely right and she did so well on her test that Professor Linden actually complimented her after she was done grading. Lily asked to have a copy of the test and when she showed it to James that evening when he picked her up in a suit and tie, he cheered so loudly that the old lady across the hall stuck her head out her door and shushed them. 

As promised, James took Lily out for dinner to celebrate her good grade in maths that night. He took her to a little Italian place near the University, both of them spending most of the night joking with each other over breadsticks and spaghetti. And maybe, Lily didn’t get the time to show James how bake her favorite cookies but that was alright, because they found their night best spent getting to know each other and staying up late just talking. 

Lily thought it was a bit ironic, that in the end it was her least favorite subject that brought charming James into her life, but she was grateful to it nonetheless. By the time she made it back to her flat after their date, she was already planning their next night out where she would keep her promise and teach him to bake. 


End file.
